'A Husband Spurned'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Violence Against Women Act has been a lifeline for countless abused women. The act, first passed in 1994 and due to be reauthorized next year, contains a host of programs including stiffer penalties for batterers, funding for women's shelters, and the creation of a national domestic violence hotline.

But the law has a potential flaw, too: A small fraction of the time, it may also provide incentive for immigrant husbands and wives to fake domestic abuse.

Hundreds of American men say their foreign wives exploited a section of VAWA that helps victims of spousal abuse to remain in the United States even if they exit their marriage. The spurned husbands say their immigrant spouses have lied to police, judges, and women's shelters in their efforts to manufacture evidence of abuse.
...

Brannon says he was a victim of a provision in VAWA that allows battered immigrant women and men to receive green cards and other benefits. He believes Elena never loved him at all and that she had planned to accuse him of domestic abuse from the first moment they made contact online.'